Death at Love House (1976)

[EP Millstone]

Not really a horror film but more of a ghost story-romance, Death at Love House is a 1976 TV-movie produced by Aaron Spelling.

Synopsis: Husband and wife writers gather research on the life of silent-movie star Lorna Love by living in her ghostly shrine.

During the 1970s television movies were cranked out like sausage. Some productions were prime cuts (e.g., Brian's Song, Duel, That Certain Summer, and The Night Stalker) and some were dog meat. Death at Love House, IMO, is an undercooked weenie made more palatable by the inclusion of a quartet of veterans from Hollywood's "Golden Age" and an appropriately haunting score by Laurence Rosenthal.

John Carradine is blustering Conan Carroll, the Love-struck director who made a star out of Lorna only to be cruelly cast aside by his sensuous but soulless discovery.

No love for Lorna beats within the wounded heart of envious rival Denise Christian, realized by Dorothy Lamour. No matter because . . .

Bright-eyed devotee Marcella Geffenhart (a very perky Joan Blondell) faithfully and reverently bears the torch and upholds the legend of her best friend who was idolized by her peers ("To Beauty from The Beast" -- Lon Chaney) and the public.

Housekeeper of the Love manse Clara Josephs, portrayed by Sylvia Sidney, cryptically speaks of the past in cautionary, elliptic tones and with a doleful expression.

The influences of those elders on Joel Gregory, Jr. (Robert Wagner), whose father was an inamorato of Lorna Love, stokes his passion to know more about the Silver Screen goddess. When the spectre of Love corporeally vamps him, he succumbs to her seduction and undergoes a sinister transformation -- bad news for wife Donna (déjà vu for Kate Jackson who had similar possessed-hubby trouble with David Selby as "Quentin Collins" in Night of Dark Shadows).

As Silver Screen goddess and spectral succubus Lorna Love, Marianna Hill is only half as stunning and seductive as the mesmerizing portrait of her painted by Artis Lane.

Tours of Love House are currently provided by YouTube and Tubi, the latter offering a drab Cheezy Flicks presentation.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

[quote="EP Millstone" post_id=169692 time=1672183359 user_id=349011]
Not really a horror film but more of a ghost story-romance, Death at Love House is a 1976 TV-movie produced by Aaron Spelling.

I saw this when it first broadcast and never forgot it. I had re watched it on Youtube not too long ago and I still enjoy it.

One memorable and eerie moment is when Robert Wagner is watching an old silent film of Lorna Love and she suddenly speaks directly to him. I loved seeing the old Hollywood stars and the twist ending came as a big surprise to me.